PORT Adelaide’s Chad Cornes is set to resume this weekend after emerging from training unscathed.
However, forward Robbie Gray is in doubt for Saturday night’s clash with North Melbourne after limping off the track during training on Wednesday afternoon.
Gray, who kicked two goals against the Western Bulldogs in round 14, was already reduced to a modified session before complaining of a left leg complaint.
Dean Brogan, Justin Westhoff, Alipate Carlile and Matt Thomas were also restricted to light duties.
Forward Brett Ebert, who is a few games back in his comeback from an ankle injury, said the Power had “worked harder” than ever before to try and rectify the disappointing start to the season
“With the losses everyone is putting in a lot more effort. We’ve had a few more meetings and things like that, but we’ve got to stay positive as well and we look forward to this week,” he said.
“We definitely want to get a win this week. We’re at home, we’ve had the weekend off and, obviously, we were disappointed losing to the Western Bulldogs a couple of weeks ago.
“We’ve had a bit of time to look at the season so far and Saturday night is going to be very important.
“There are eight weeks left, so we’ll see how many wins we can get.”
Ebert, who led the club’s goal kicking and was named in the initial 40-man All-Australian squad last season, revealed he was close to signing off on a new deal to keep him at Port Adelaide.
“Dad [Russell Ebert] has been sitting down with Peter Rohde over the past few weeks, so hopefully it will be done soon. I think we’ve got a couple of others who should be signing soon too,” he said.
“It’s not too far away from getting done. Obviously, I’d love to stay here. It’s a great club and it would be good to sign on.”
The Power have won just a solitary game, against St Kilda, from seven starts at AAMI Stadium this year and club’s numbers have suffered as a result.
Ebert said the players were determined to repay their supporters with a much-needed win over the Kangaroos.
“The Port Adelaide footy club is pretty proud and we’ve got a long history. When you are losing a lot of things go down, but we need that crowd support,” he said.
“It’s huge for us and we don’t get big crowds at the best of times. I suppose the Showdown is an example of playing in front of a massive crowd and that always pumps the boys up.
“We love playing at home and having the home crowd and a couple of those games got away from us and were disappointing.
“We pride ourselves on winning at home and we’ve got signs up around the place saying we must win at home. It’s very frustrating because we’re disappointing our crowd, but hopefully we can turn that around this week.”
